A BRIEF MEMOIR OF WILLIAM ROXBURGH,
A U T H O E OF
THE PLOEA INDIOA.
Prefixed to the last volume of these Annals, I gave a short account of Colonel
Robert Kycl, the Founder and first Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden. It
seems fitting therefore that some account should, in the present volume, be given of
the Botanist to whom this Garden owes the establishment of its reputation as a centre
of botanical work.
William Koxburgh was born at Underwood in the parish of Craigie ia Aryshiro on
the 3rd June 1751.* His family, although not rich people, managed to give him the
kind of liberal education which during the two centuries that preceded the introduction of
school-boards, " standards" and capitation grants, used to be obtainable at almost every
parochial school in Scotland. From the parish school Roxburgh went to the University
of Edinburgh and, having attended as many of the medical classes tiiere as wore
tlien required for a license to practice as a Surgeon's mate, he received [through the
influence of Dr. Hope, tlieu Professor of Botany at Edinburgh) an appointment in
tliat capacity on one of the Honourable East India Company's ships. Ho accomplished
several voyages to India on East Indiamen, and having, during the intervals
spent at home, completed his medical studies at the • University of Edinburgli,
Roxburgh was offered, and accopted, an appointment on the same Company's Madras
Establishment. Roxburgh arrived at Madras during 1776, and he there made the
acquaintance of Dr. Koenig,t who happened at the time to be making one of his
frequent visits to Madras. Koenig had come out to India about eiglit years
previously, and had been working at Natural History (chiefly on its botanical side)
ever sn^ce. Koenig had been a pupil of Linnaeus, and was still an active correspondent
of that great master. Coming originally to India at the instance of the
King of Denmark, Dr. Koenig was attached to tlie Danish Settlement at Tranquebar.
The inadequate income which he received there, however, induced him to accept
service under the Nawab of Arcot, and it was while in the Navvab's service tiiar
he first met Roxburgh. From the special interest taken in him by Dr. Hope,
there is every probability that Roxburgh had, as a student at Edinburgh, shown
entliusiasin for Botanical Science. Koenig had already given practical proof of iiis
^ » LA CLAMB.RS' BIOGRAPHIES OF LIMBEUT SCOTCHMEN, TLIO D«TE IS GIV,-N .S £9T!I JUNE 1759, BUT UMT DOES NOT AGREE
WALL LIOXBUTI-IIS ASO AT DEATH AS GI.EU ON L.IS TOMBSTONE.
T JOHN GERARD KOENIG, A NATIVA OF COURLAAD. PUPIL AND CORRESPONDENT OF LLNDEEUS, TRAVELLED IN ICELAND
DURING 17LI5; ^>-ENT TO THA DANISK SETTLEMCDT IN TKO CARNATIC AS PHYSICIAN AND KATURAU.T :N 1768; ENTERED TLIE
SERNCE OF THE NAWAB OF ARCOT ABOUT 1774; WAS EMPLOYED BY THE MADRAS BOARD IN 1778, AND ENTERED TH«
SERVICE OF THO HONOURABLE LIUST INDIA COMPBNY IN 1780; DIED OF DYSENTERY AT JAGRENATLIPORUIN ON 26TH JUNE 1785.
A S K . EOY. BOX. GAED. CALCVTTA, YOL. V.